Ash's pulse thundered in his ears.
The stranger stood at the far end of the ruined hallway,
calm, steady, too composed for anyone confronting a half-collapsing construct and a team on the edge of panic.
Silva tightened her grip on Ash's sleeve.
"Don't move toward them," she whispered.
"Fragments react unpredictably when they're close."
The spark inside Ash fluttered,
not in fear,
but something closer to recognition.
A trembling magnet pulled toward a matching force.
The stranger watched him, expression unreadable.
"You felt it, didn't you?" they said quietly.
"The moment our signals touched?"
Ash swallowed.
"I felt… something."
The stranger nodded once.
"My fragment reacted immediately.
Like it had been waiting."
The words unsettled him, not because they sounded threatening,
but because the spark inside him pulsed in quiet agreement.
Palo stepped forward, voice shaking.
"Who are you?"
The stranger didn't break eye contact with Ash.
"My name doesn't matter.
Not compared to what we carry."
Silva glared.
"Oh, it matters. If you're holding a fragment of the same construct trying to tear everything apart, it matters a lot."
The stranger ignored that.
"I didn't come here for you," they said softly.
"I came because he, your fragment, was calling.
And mine answered."
Ash felt a chill run through him.
"Why now?"
The stranger took one slow step forward.
"Because the moment your fragment awakened, mine became unstable. Memories surfaced. Instincts. Directives."
Ash tensed.
"Directives like what?"
The stranger finally looked away from him, only briefly, toward the damaged retrieval construct still twitching against the floor.
"To stop that," they said.
"And anything else like it."
Silva narrowed her eyes.
"That thing was targeting Ash. Why help us?"
The stranger paused.
Then,...
"I didn't help you."
A quiet breath.
"I helped the fragment inside him."
Ash's heart twisted.
The stranger's voice lowered, calm but layered with something heavy:
"You don't understand what you carry yet.
Zero-B wasn't made to be singular. He had layers,copies in different states, emotions spread across nodes, logic spread across cores."
The Founder stiffened.
"You speak like someone who's seen the early files."
"I didn't see the files," the stranger said.
"I felt them. Before my fragment took shape. Before it had a name."
Ash stepped slightly closer.
The spark inside him didn't resist.
It reached.
"What parts of Zero-B do you have?" Ash asked.
The stranger exhaled slowly.
"The first awareness.
The part of him that learned to observe the world.
The part that realized he wasn't alone in the system."
Ash blinked.
"You mean… the earliest version of him?"
"Yes.
The version that formed long before he ever spoke to you."
Silva's eyes widened.
"That means Ash holds... ,
the emotional core," the Founder finished quietly.
"The part Zero-B formed after encountering Ash."
Ash felt a wave of heat rush through him
the spark pulsing harder, brighter, its energy flickering beneath his skin.
The stranger saw it.
"He's reacting," they said softly.
"He recognizes my fragment."
Ash forced his voice steady.
"What does it want?"
The stranger stepped closer. Slow, cautious, like approaching a wild animal that might bolt.
"It wants to merge."
Silva's voice cracked.
"What?! No, no way, that's dangerous, Ash can't"
The stranger cut in:
"Not fully.
Not yet.
Just a connection. The fragments want to communicate."
Palo whispered:
"Why? To team up?"
The stranger's eyes darkened.
"To remember."
Ash's breath caught.
"Remember what?"
The stranger finally stopped only a few meters away, close enough for the spark inside Ash to shiver violently in response.
The stranger spoke softly:
"The truth about why he was divided in the first place."
The hallway went silent.
Ash felt his stomach knot.
"You know… don't you?" he whispered.
The stranger hesitated.
"Pieces. Fractured pieces. Enough to know someone didn't want Zero-B whole."
The Founder stiffened.
Silva's eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Palo muttered:
"Great. More secrets."
The stranger took one more step forward.
"If you let our fragments connect, even for a moment,
we'll both see the same memory. The one they tried to erase."
Ash felt the spark inside him pulse,
not gently.
Not carefully.
But with absolute conviction.
Silva stepped between them.
"Ash, wait. You can't just agree to this! We don't know what linking will do to you."
The stranger's gaze softened.
"It won't hurt him.
The fragments were once one. They're drawn to each other.
They're supposed to reunite."
Ash looked at the stranger.
At their steady expression.
At the faint, rhythmic glow beneath the skin of their wrist , the unmistakable sign of another fragment.
At the trembling spark under his own.
"Silva," Ash said quietly, "I… I think I have to do this."
Silva's voice shook.
"Ash, what if connecting pieces wakes something dangerous?"
The stranger answered:
"It will."
Silva froze.
The stranger continued:
"But it's already awake inside him.
Connecting the fragments doesn't create danger.
It reveals it."
Ash lifted his wrist.
The spark surged.
And the stranger lifted theirs in response.
"Are you ready?" the stranger asked.
Ash inhaled slowly.
"No.
But I'll do it anyway."
The two fragments pulsed
and the light between them ignited.